Sunday, August 27, 2006
Turage 2, Not as good as Fruity Loops, But Pretty Good For Free!
I downloaded Turage from Bram Bos the other day to try it out. Turage allows you to import loops and sample and sequence them into a song. It also comes with some loops to get you started. When you install the program you get two versions. One is free and the other requires you to pay to avoid the nag screens. The deference is that the free version provides you with a drum machine and a animated modeling soft synth to use along with your imported loops. The non-free version adds a virtual sampler and a fm synth also. You can try the non-free one without having to pay and you can actually save the loops you create and export them as wave files.
I created a loop using the drum machine that comes with the program. It comes with 808 style sounds already installed but you can import your own using the sample manager. You program the machine using a grid type interface where you click on the grid where you want the drum to sound. You can assign 8 drum sounds, (keyboard sounds are available also) to the grid and you can control the volume and effects on each individual drum by a mixer at the bottom of the screen. You can control the pitch and loudness of each individual note by right clicking on the note. As a result, you can program a drum loop complete with base line. You also have control over swing, quantize, and the number of measures in the loop.
Once you have your loop the way you want it, you can save it and use it as a loop in the loop sequencer. On the main screen you have 12 slots where you can assign loops. The volume of the individual loops are controlled by the mixer at the bottom of the screen. Once assigned, the fun really starts. Click at the end of the name of the sample and you can control whether it loops or plays as a one shot. Click on the fx bottom to the left of the sample and you can either add distortion or variation to the sample. The distortion varies in an amount you select by drawing a distortion curve on the grid in the distortion menu. The variation effect chops the sample into sections and allows you to reverse a section, reduce its volume, mute it, and/or move it. It gives you plenty of presets to try that have some funky effects on your loops.
The virtual synths produce analogue type sounds and use a piano role type of editor to create lines and chords. They come with several presets that sound interesting and it is fairly easy to come up with your own sounds. Once you have something you are happy with you save it and can use it as a loop in the loop sequencer.
To build a song go to the sequence mode. Click on a step and select the wave you want in the main section below the sequence section. Click on the next step and repeat. You can copy and past sections once you have them together. In the song I created for download, I used a drum loop, a drum loop I created with the virtual drum machine, and a brass lick I sampled from a song. I used the on board sample editor to trim and effect the brass lick to my satisfaction, then I exported the whole thing as a wave file. I normalized the file in Audacity and exported it as an Mp3. I hope this will give you a clear picture of what Turage can do for you. There are more advanced loop creation software out there but this one will do in a pinch when you are creating music on a budget.
If you are looking for Turage 2: http://www.brambos.com/tu2.html
Link to Turage Tour by C-Dub: http://www.4shared.com/file/3298544/faa60dd9/turage_tour.html
I downloaded Turage from Bram Bos the other day to try it out. Turage allows you to import loops and sample and sequence them into a song. It also comes with some loops to get you started. When you install the program you get two versions. One is free and the other requires you to pay to avoid the nag screens. The deference is that the free version provides you with a drum machine and a animated modeling soft synth to use along with your imported loops. The non-free version adds a virtual sampler and a fm synth also. You can try the non-free one without having to pay and you can actually save the loops you create and export them as wave files.
I created a loop using the drum machine that comes with the program. It comes with 808 style sounds already installed but you can import your own using the sample manager. You program the machine using a grid type interface where you click on the grid where you want the drum to sound. You can assign 8 drum sounds, (keyboard sounds are available also) to the grid and you can control the volume and effects on each individual drum by a mixer at the bottom of the screen. You can control the pitch and loudness of each individual note by right clicking on the note. As a result, you can program a drum loop complete with base line. You also have control over swing, quantize, and the number of measures in the loop.
Once you have your loop the way you want it, you can save it and use it as a loop in the loop sequencer. On the main screen you have 12 slots where you can assign loops. The volume of the individual loops are controlled by the mixer at the bottom of the screen. Once assigned, the fun really starts. Click at the end of the name of the sample and you can control whether it loops or plays as a one shot. Click on the fx bottom to the left of the sample and you can either add distortion or variation to the sample. The distortion varies in an amount you select by drawing a distortion curve on the grid in the distortion menu. The variation effect chops the sample into sections and allows you to reverse a section, reduce its volume, mute it, and/or move it. It gives you plenty of presets to try that have some funky effects on your loops.
The virtual synths produce analogue type sounds and use a piano role type of editor to create lines and chords. They come with several presets that sound interesting and it is fairly easy to come up with your own sounds. Once you have something you are happy with you save it and can use it as a loop in the loop sequencer.
To build a song go to the sequence mode. Click on a step and select the wave you want in the main section below the sequence section. Click on the next step and repeat. You can copy and past sections once you have them together. In the song I created for download, I used a drum loop, a drum loop I created with the virtual drum machine, and a brass lick I sampled from a song. I used the on board sample editor to trim and effect the brass lick to my satisfaction, then I exported the whole thing as a wave file. I normalized the file in Audacity and exported it as an Mp3. I hope this will give you a clear picture of what Turage can do for you. There are more advanced loop creation software out there but this one will do in a pinch when you are creating music on a budget.
If you are looking for Turage 2: http://www.brambos.com/tu2.html
Link to Turage Tour by C-Dub: http://www.4shared.com/file/3298544/faa60dd9/turage_tour.html
